Food Wander

Saturday, May 17, 2014

I was so hungry after the flight coming from our hometown, Bicol. Restaurants inside the airport were full packed plus I didn't know what to eat. Then I decided to go home straightly craving for home cooked food, but it was terribly traffic going out of the Airport road. The time I passed by the SM City Sucat I was super hungry already. I decided to drop by and looked for something to eat. When I saw the Chinese fast food I thought of hot pot noodles then I saw a signage of a Korean fast food, Mr. Kimbob, the Korean Health Food.

I am not a fan of Korean food but the food presentation looks appealing. So I asked the food crew what is there best seller, she recommended the Beef Bibimbob. She recommended too to put a hot sauce on its top for more tasty and enjoyable meal. I ordered there best seller, beef Bibimbob, regular size for 99.00 pesos. Since I have a bottle of water I didn't enjoy any drinks. The beef Bibimbob has rice and thin slices of vegetables on the side, like carrots, chayote, cabbage, sprouted mongo, Korean famous pickled called kimchi, beef strips and sunny side up egg. All these food r served in one hot sizzling plate. According to the video shown in the counter, the food on the hot plate should be mixed to enjoy it more. For me I mixed the veggies and rice but I didn't mix the egg and the beef.

The taste was nice, for me it was a good experience. Affordable food with good nutritional value too. It's a one dish meal. Complete food.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Every time I hear the word Guimaras, a province in Panay
Island, one word get into my mind Mango.
How about you?

We dropped in the gift shop of Trappist Monastary, Home of the Contemplative Trappist Catholic
Christian Monks of the Philippines. My sister who happened not to be with us in
our tour asked for pasalubong (gifts) from Guimaras.

I bought Mango Bar, Mango Otap and of course Mango Fruits.

We liked the mango bar, it is a butterscotch cake with mango
chips and cashew nuts on top. The zest of mango blended with the butterscotch
and nuts. It’s definitely delicious. Each cake s individually wrapped. One box
consists of 10 cakes.

The Mango Otap is a flaky cookie coated with mango syrup. In
each wrap it consists of three otaps. In a box it has 8 packs.

We Filipinos always bring gifts or pasalubong every time we
would go to other places. Small or big things
are really appreciated.

For those who are foreigners Explore Philippines and
includes to try native delicacies. Who knows your palete might like it too. Be adventurous.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Almost every occasion my sisters, who are working in Makati bring cakes and pastries
coming from Amici. I thought it was franchised Italian restaurant. Usually when
we would go out or on tour, if we couldn’t think of what to eat,
we would look for Italian restaurants. For me with Italian foods, I will not go
wrong. Don’t get me wrong I love any
different cuisines. It’s just when I couldn’t think of what to eat, I would
prefer Italian food instead. My sisters told me that Amici serves authentic Italian
food in an affordable prices or should I say a bit higher from the prices of
the fast food. Like last Valentine my sister gave a box of Lemon bar. I liked
the blend of sour and sweetness taste of it that I didn’t notice I almost finished half of it in one
sitting.

Two weeks ago our nephew was going to celebrate his 20th
birthday, so we decided to dine in Amici. We went to its branch in Venice
Piazza, Mc Kinley Hill Rd., Mc Kinely Hills, Taguig. As we waited for our food,
I read their humble beginning, got amazed how this restaurant started as a
cafeteria for the company workers of a printing press that eventually catered
to the students then open its door to public. Read in here how this restaurant got in the main stream of restaurants.
It was first called as Amici de Don Bosco which means Friends of Don bosco.

We ordered the Amici Group Meal Famiglia, it composed of Margherita,
Aglio Olio e Pepperoncino, Spaghetti alla Carbonara, Italian Sausage with 1
Pitcher of Iced Tea, Nocciola Blend, Choco Sans Rival and Pistaccio Almond Gelato
Shake. Then we took out a whole of Caramella Premia for the birthday celebrant,
who unfortunately missed the outing. LOL sorry for him.

For the most pop of all the food we ordered was the Pasta
Aglio Olio e Pepperoncino. I loved the taste of the garlic and oil in the tender
spaghetti noodles with ample parmesan
cheese and bits of anchovies. That made me look for a recipe on line to try it
in our house.

The spaghetti alla Carbonara has creamy taste. Italian food
is flavorful because of its huge amount of parmesan. That’s their secret to
make their food tasty.

I am not into sausage except if it’s in a bread. Although
in Amici it is served with steamed veggies that balance the taste of the meat
so its fine.

Choco Sans Rival is an ice cream cake, flavored chocolate ice cream with
meringue wafer. And it was plated on a white plate with chocolate and jelly as
decoration.

Nocciola Blend a hazelnut
ice cream with chocolate flakes and
cherry on top bedded on lady finger cookies. It’s part of the affogato selection.
I was thinking the scoop of ice cream will be served with hot espresso like in
other Italian restaurants but in Amici the espresso served was not.For me this dessertis overpriced. Much better to try dessert
than this.

According to the waiter the best seller for gelato shake
is the Pistachio Almond Gelato Shake. It has a taste of creamy and nutty shake.
The tiny bits of the nuts make it flavorful.

Caramella Premia is a caramel flavored chiffon cake with
cashew nuts and caramel icing. The cake and icing are both were smooth, heavenly
spongy cake with nuts. We went home late because we watched a concert and this what the cake looked like, lol but the taste still the same.

Friday, February 14, 2014

On our second day in BacolodCity
“the city of smile”, I noticed that when in this city it’s more on food trip.
They have many restaurants and café, almost every corner you can find them.
That’s why for me it should be the “city of sweet life”. It shouldn’t be the
“city of smile” because most of the people that deal with the supposed to be
“customer service” don’t usually smile. My hubby is more convinced that it’s
the city of sweet life.

After our dinner in Bob’s Restaurant we went to Calea
pastries and coffee. It’s a pastry shop obviously. I heard about this pastry
shop several times because my sisters studied in Iloilo
and sometimes they went to BacolodCity. They tried Calea
cakes several times. They said their cakes are superb, yummy, and creamy and so
on and so forth. Actually on our first night we wanted to try it but it was
already closed when we went there. On our second night we didn’t want to miss
it.

It’s a cozy café with wide selections of cakes, pastries and
cookies. There are pasalubong items in there too. I asked what the best seller
for ice cream cake is, the stoned face waitress replied “mud pie”. Lol it’s
really the city of frown este city of smile. I just told my hubby it was almost
10pm that’s why the waitress was super tired.

Choco Mud pie, is an ice cream cake. The ice cream is extra
soft and creamy, top with chocolate fudge, chocolate cookies powder and
cashew flakes. It was a pop for me, because the chocolate and the cashew made
the taste so good.

Mouse cake with chocolate and white chocolate has a smooth
and creamy texture. My sister’s favorite, she indulge herself even chocolate is
not good for her.

It’s a must to visit Calea pastries and coffee because it’s
the café that has no branch outside BacolodCity. A rare shop that
can only be found only here in BacolodCity.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Our day was tiring came from SilayCity’s
walking heritage tour. Our plan was to have our dinner in the “The Ruins” but
we were still full from our snack in El Ideal bakery. We decided to go back to
our hotel and rest. Around 9:00pm my sister called me that we can have our
dinner in Bob’s, I was like no other restaurant because in the morning we had
our breakfast in Bob’s Café. She said no it’s another location, a restaurant.

I asked what something different is in this restaurant that
we had to try the restaurant? Her friend said its one of the oldest restaurant
in the city. They serve American food. My husband said okay we could try it.

The first thing we noticed when we entered was the waiters
were mostly guys and sort of young once. Bacolod
is known as “City of Smile”
but in this restaurant the staff doesn’t know how to smile, contrary to what
the city promotes. My husband is coming from west; in their country the
customer service is different for sure.

Bob’s Restaurant’s placemat is a paper placemat with print
of the menu and its price from year 1965, the year it was founded.

We ordered pepperoni pizza, chicken sate, sate babe, pork
teriyaki and orange juice. And our foods were served with an animated waiter. He was like forcing himself to do what he should do. Although
according to my sister’s friend the owner takes care of his employees, his
employees grow old in this restaurant.

Pepperoni pizza and fresh orange juice were for my husband,
he was so dismayed because he said what kind of pizza was this? Tasted like
coming from the grocery store then just reheated. His juice was not freshly
squeezed because we asked first before we ordered and the waiter said it was. Definitely a huge disappointment.

Before I ordered mine, I asked the waiter what is their
bestseller. He said sate. I was thinking sate of ZamboangaCity.
But my sister’s friend said no it’s a grilled meat with peanut sauce. My mind
was tickled with peanut sauce on grilled meat sounds interesting. I ordered
chicken sate and for my sister, sate babe. It was not a pop for me, because the
rice shouldn’t be java, it should be served with plain rice. The sate sauce doesn’t
blend with java rice made it too salty.

My sister’s friend used to dine in Bob’s restaurant, she
living in the city. Basically she knows what she was ordering. She said pork
teriyaki tasted good because of the sauce blended well with that sprouted
mongo.

Hubby whispered to me before we left the restaurant NOT to
give tip because he said tip is a way of saying thank you for the good service.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Go hotel where we were staying has no room food service and
there was just one café in the lobby. Our itinerary for the day was to explore SilayCity.
My husband loves coffee in the morning so my sister brought us to Café Bob’s.

We took jeepney, the fare was 7.00 pesos. It’s good the shop opens at 7:00 am, we can
have an early caffeine load. It is
located in Lacson St.,
corner 21st St., Bacolod City.

The ambiance inside of the café is cozy and there are tables
outside with a waterfall and koi pond that made the area refreshing. The menu
is wide array. The choices are from coffee concoctions, burgers, pastad,
pastries, pizza, bread, cakes and more. There is a gelato corner inside the
café and on the other side a deli store, which offers from local pasalubong to
imported goodies. There is imported variety of cheese and goodies that couldn’t
be found in an ordinary grocery store.

We ordered café Mocha Frappe,
Cappuccino, Espresso Americano, cappuccino, club house sandwich, cheese muffin
and Spaghetti alla Puttanesca. They have a huge serving. I love the dining
experience because the place was so quiet, maybe because it was early. For me
when I am on tour, I try the local delicacies and food as much as I could but
when I want a comfort food, I look for Italian food. Good for me because when I
ordered spaghetti alla puttanesca, it was a pop. I love the taste because the
tomato sauce blended well with the olives and cheese. The pasta was al dente.
Simply I love it.

Spaghetti ala Puttanesca

The club house sandwich was the
one that my sister munched on. She loved it too because of the filling and the
fresh bread. I agree with her it tasted well. Love the combination of the
fillings they used. And the potato chips were crunchy.

The Club House Sandwich

My hubby wanted a sweet treat
that early in the morning, so he tried the cheese muffin. The muffin presented
as inviting to indulge with it. He ordered two pieces but he got dismayed
because it was too sweet that couldn’t taste the cheese anymore.

Cheese Muffin

Although the coffees we ordered
were freshly brewed and blended well even the frappe was. It was an early
caffeine load and got us be energized for the day’s load.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

GuimarasIsland
is home for one of the sweetest mango in the world, if not the sweetest.
Bringing mango to the island is prohibited. Mango is the number one product of
the island. What comes into your mind when u heard Guimaras? For me its mango.

As of now, mango pizza is a must
try when in GuimarasIsland. The only
restaurant that offers it is the Pitstop Restaurant, located in San Miguel, Jordan,
Guimaras. We had a late lunch in the island because we decided to have it in
the Pitstop Restaurant.

The first thing we ordered was
Mango Pizza even we didn’t see the menu yet. Mmmmm why not? These are the food
we ordered Mango Spaghetti(P 65.00), Mango Shake (P 39.00), garden fresh pizza
(P 259.00), mango pizza (P189.00), chicken with rice and spaghetti (65.00).

Garden Fresh Pizza

Mango pizzas is made of not so
thin or not so thick crust, mango fruit slices, cheese, topped with cashew nuts
and green bell pepper. Crust is not the usual that can be found in sbarro,
pizza hut, italiani’s, shakey’s, uncle cheffy or other pizza house. I think the
crust should be improved and there should be choices thin and thick crust. Personally I
love thinner and crunchy crust. I can imagine how the mango fruit slices plus
mozzarella would be in a hot, thinner and crunchy crust. It would be perfect.
The cheese they used in it is not as good as mozzarella cheese. When I eat
pizza it’s the cheese that adds more to the gusto. But nevertheless it was
refreshing. Sour and sweet taste blends well plus the chili sauce and the
crunchiness of the cashew nuts and bell pepper. We tried it too with mango
ketchup instead of tomato ketchup. Wow a great experience.

Mango Pizza

Mango spaghetti caught our attention, sounds
new to us. Well I am sure to most of you the same it’s new too. The sauce used
was mixed with mango fruits that made it of course different from the rest of
the pasta that we tried before. It’s a typical Filipino Pasta dish, sweet and
sour taste, which made it, tastes more of a salad.

It’s good to know that the locals
are finding ways to promote their local products by incorporating it with other
products. Salute to the locals for promoting their place to be known to the
country and eventually to the world.

About Me

Google+ Followers

Disclosure

This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.